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Thompson 1

Gwenna Thompson
Professor Collins
ENGL 1301
29 November 2016
Under The Surface
English is a strange subject. Every essay and short answer response prompt that is
addressed never has a concrete answer. It all depends on if the author can defend their
topic or idea successfully. In Professor Collins English course I have learned many skills.
These skills not only apply to literature, but they also apply to everyday life. English is
the means of communications and defines a certain piece of a humans personality; it
determines how a person comes across to others. I have written three specific works, a
short answer response and two essays, that have been significant to what knowledge I
have gained sitting in the room of G166. I have learned how to communicate assertively
by writing short answer responses while utilizing minimal resources, how to research,
and have gained a better ability to read nonverbal communication by using ethos, pathos,
and logos.
With essay two I learned how to relay important facts and information without
being biased. My essay, Exploring Vaccinations, required a lot of research in order to
make sure it was fallacy free. Having to find facts about vaccinations helped refresh my
memory on conducting research. This essay required two scholarly sources and thus the
Colleges Library Database was extremely helpful. It helped ensure the authenticity of
my information and pieces of literature I chose. Aside from this, I must also mention that
from the very beginning I had problems with finding relevant historic facts about my

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topic. By the time essay two was assigned I had become better at this. I concluded this
from a peers comment that said, Good background info! I didnt know that!
Following this was essay three and because of my progress I had no problem coming up
with relevant history on my topic. Essay two extended my resources for researching and
helped me master my ability to insert background information.
In writing the first short answer response assigned I learned how to communicate
assertively and successfully. A short answer response generally consists of 300-500
words. With this limit, it can sometimes seems challenging to make a strong point and
conclude what your intentions are. While writing my SAR, Sweating The Wage Gap, I
struggled summarizing the point I wanted to make. This assignment taught me how to
Cut to the chase or in laymens terms, how to directly answer a question while
supporting my view on the prompt. Although this was my first short answer response and
it had significant negative feedback, it turned into my learning rock. Every SAR I wrote
after that became a better edition, but with a different topic.
Essay three was my final showcase of everything I had learned as far as academic
writing. My progress up to this paper had been successful and I was confident in my
ability to produce a well-rounded piece of work. In the beginning, I would have five or
six rough drafts of my essays and by the time I came to essay three, I only had three
rough drafts. I proved I had got to the point of almost mastering my diction and all of the
other elements that are needed to write a paper. Although academic writing was an
important detail of this essay, I also learned how to read nonverbal communication by
utilizing ethos, pathos and logos. Since these three ideas were presented to me in the
seventh grade I have struggled with them because of some of their similarities; ethos and

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logos tend to look the same. This essay taught me how to narrow in on each one and
analyze an advertisement accordingly. In addition to this, I also learned how to compare
images in relevance to symbolism. This lead to my comparison between the image titled
Preservation and the image Creation of Adam. When this paper was due I was in the
hospital and so I did not complete the ratiocination process. Given that I made the same
grade on my second essay and I did not do the ratiocination, I concluded that had I done
that step, my grade would have been higher. Thus, I had come a long way in my writing
skills. My paper, Environmental War and Peace, opened up my vision to what the
naked eye could not see.
English 1301 was challenging, but without this class I know I would not be the
developed writer I am now. I can definitely say that working up gradually in difficulty as
the assignments progressed helped more than will ever be known. G166 will always hold
great memories and great lessons that I will never forget. Now I can say that when I move
on from this class that I am equipped with skills in nonverbal communication, research,
and so much more. English 1302, here I come!

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